Aaaand here's a brief explanation of why Chizuru is not currently playing a serious role, and probably won't ever be. It's simply because I can only see any encounter between her and Ranma, that lasts more than a minute or two, going one of these two general ways, which I've put in psuedo-text-speak, for your convenience. And while they might be fun to write.... eh, I'm having more fun the way things are going now.

A-

Ch: Hay lts ttly make out!

R:... (eyes Ch)... 'K.

B-

Ch: Groeps R.

R: Takes Ch.

Ch: 8D

AND NOW YOU KNOW!

Also, brief note of spelling checking failure. It's supposed to be Muramasa, not Masamune, at the end of nine. Wiki it and it'll be obvious why. Some of you already know. So let's begin!

xxx

Mahoranma

In which Assumptions get made, and Ranma comes out ahead. As usual.

xxx

Ranma had, in between training Tatsuki, decoding Urahara's notebook, and attending school, begun looking into the benifits of being some sort of twisted hybrid of dead things with voices in her head.

So far, she was pulling a pretty big blank. Apparently, there was some sort of increase with her normal levels of spirit energy, the whole inner world thing that was proving to be incomparably useful, but that was about it. There were the shinigami powers as well... that she wouldn't be able to use without a great deal of study and effort. There were also the Hollow powers... or rather, the lack thereof, as Kagami had sheepishly admitted she had no idea what they might be, or how, exactly, to make them work.

So essentially, she got a somewhat more brutally vicious voice in her head out of the deal, and a bunch powers she couldn't immediately use. And so, she had begun trying to work out ways to get the ball rolling and learn how to make those powers work, starting with the shinigami side of the equation.

xxx

"In essence." the Other stated. "Pretty much all of a shinigami's power is bound up in their zanpakuto, in this case me. There are some unique fighting styles, yes, and a lot of psuedo-spells that can't be activated by beginners without ridiculously long chants beforehand. Very nice, in the flowery, usually sort of effeminate sort of way, but very likely to leave you with a chunk of steel stuck in your ribs after you match up against someone not genteel enough to stand still while you recite poetry at them. If you can practice to the point that you can activate the demon arts with just a few short words rather than an epic ballad, then that's the way to go, but for the most part it's the sword that holds the power."

"I see..."

"But in order for you to get that power, the shinigami needs to know the name of their zanpakuto. My name is -"

"I... didn't catch that." Ranma admitted, rubbing at her suddenly throbbing ears.

"-. It's -. I really don't understand why you can't hear me say -, when usually a shinigami can't even talk to their zanpakuto until they're ready to hear the name and awaken Shikai." the Other admitted in turn, making no bones about her confusion.

Ranma had flinched several times during the diatribe at the horrible, horrible noise that intervened whenever the Other's actual name was spoken, preventing her from actually making it out and causing her eyes to water just enough that she couldn't even clearly read the sword's lips.

"In any case, just telling me looks like it isn't going to work." Ranma said. "Maybe we should try this from a different angle? I mean, is there any rule that I have to get your name by you saying it? Maybe you could just write it on something...."

The Other frowned, considering the idea, then kicked the dust, squatting and beginning to trace lines in it in an attempt to form a word. Unfortunately, a strange breeze picked up at that moment, blowing ash through the air, destroying the characters as fast as she wrote them down and stinging at Ranma's eyes. Not for the first time, Ranma wondered why she couldn't avoid that sort of thing in a place where she technically was the law of reality and could all but rewrite it as she saw fit.

"This isn't working." The other realized after a few awkward minutes.

"Okay. So writing isn't going to work either, and I still have no idea where to begin, and now I have a headache and my eyes are all red and puffy. Great. So... charades, maybe?"

"Worth a shot." the Other decided halfheartedly, apparently having given up hope for the most part. "First syllable, then. Starts with '-', sounds like '-'."

"OH FOR F-"

xxx

In any case, the attempt hadn't really gone well. Having run out more logical options, Ranma was pretty much limited to guessing random words and the combinations thereof for a while before giving the whole thing up in frustration as a bad job.

Next, she'd looked into the whole Hollow thing. Needless to say, that hadn't worked out much better.

xxx

'Well, finally got us one. 'Bout time, too.' Kagami snarked.

"Look, it is not my fault that I didn't realize that Muramasa's soul devouring properties meant that if it came into contact with a Hollow, essentially a solid, evil soul, beneath a certain level of power, that it would automatically devour them itself, instantly. We got this one with the zanpakuto eventually, right?"

The sword in question seemed to give off a sense of sheepishness and apology as she glowered down at the Hollow, pinned to the concrete by a bunch of broken pipes and other random stuff that had either been vaguely pointy when they'd found it, or had been made to have a point without much effort. There was no question that it was 'edible', as that weird 'why does it feel like I'm looking at a platter of nachos?' feeling had come over her once she'd seen a Hollow after the chain thing, and every one since had triggered similar feelings. The question was eating it.

'So, Hollow energies grow by eating ghosts and other Hollows. I think. Not 'zactly a manual for this stuff, but it's my best guess, anyway. So, uh... eat up.'

"What, just take bites out of it like a ravenous hound or something?" Ranma objected, slightly disgusted by the idea. "Isn't there some more... elegant way, to handle this sort of thing?"

'Hell if I know.' Was the succinct reply. Ranma frowned absently, kicking the trapped Hollow as it tried, subtly as it could manage but not near sneakily enough, to start prying itself free.

"No hope for it, I just have to ask." Ranma decided. "Hey, you. Monster. How do you ingest the spirit energies of others such as yourself?"

The Hollow stared dumbly at her, and Ranma sighed, dumbing the question down a bit.

"How do you eat stuff?"

"I... put it in my mouth...?" The Hollow ventured cautiously, wary of the mad little girl and her evil doll.

"Typical. No help whatsoever."

'Eh, if it's that bad, maybe I can try? Dunno, but a lot of this stuff seems to work on instinct and desire, or maybe need... just stuff like that. If I'm there, and I want to eat him, but not with my mouth, I think I'll probably figure something out.' Kagami offered.

"An excellent point, and if it comes down to the standard method of ingestion after all, I can simply watch and frown in distaste." Ranma realized. "Very well, we'll do that, then."

A very long, very awkward silence followed.

'You... don't actually know how to switch places with me, do you.'

"First, I was hoping that you would unexpectedly, immediately, and inexplicably be able to figure out how to do it on your own. Second, shut up." Ranma countered. "Oh, this is just wonderful. How vulgar. I'll have to buy mouthwash after we're through with this, as well as a new toothbrush, and heavy duty floss. I can't imagine that evil spirit is at all sanitary or easy on the teeth, and this has been lying on the ground for a while."

"Hey, wait just a moment crazy-girl, I can't quite follow your conversation with the voices in your head, but I don't think I like what I think you're planning to- oh crap, my arm, you cut off my arm, you crazy bitch!" The Hollow spoke up again.

Ranma speared the severed limb with her zanpakuto and lifted it to about face height, ignoring the victim's rapid, impassioned, and yet feeble protests. It was both singularly unappetizing, and the most delicious looking thing she'd ever seen at once, somehow. She sighed.

"Well, bottoms up." She decided, levering the hunk of meat off the blade and ripping a huge bite off of it and chewing.

Actually, once her mind got over exactly what it was that was in her mouth, it wasn't that bad. The Hollow had looked like a sort of humanoid reptile thingy, and indeed, it's flesh reminded her very much of lizard, which she had eaten more than a few times on Genma's training trip, when supplies and money had grown scarce and they'd had to scavenge all sorts of things for food. And despite that the limb was obviously raw, it tasted like it had been cooked, and done properly with just the right seasoning to boot. It was almost nostalgic... curious, she swallowed, noted the miniscule, near imperceptible spirit energy increase and the strange aftertaste that left her wanting more, and tore another large bite loose.

It had been exactly then that Tatsuki turned down into the alleyway and stopped, taking in the scene. Ranma, for her part, froze as well, the bite of Hollow hanging partially out of her mouth. After a moment, she slurped it in and swallowed. After another, she awkwardly and almost guiltily hid the severed limb behind her back, as though it would make the other girl un-see the situation. The Hollow was sobbing incoherently, Ranma noted.

"I... gah... huh?"

"This... this isn't what it looks like? Actually, no, it's pretty much exactly what it looks like, isn't it. Um, so I was thinking, Hollows, they uh, eat people. Like, whenever they feel like it. And it irritated me, so uh, I kinda thought 'Maybe someone should eat them for a change', and... yeah, you aren't buying any of this, are you?"

"You know what, don't even try to explain" Tatsuki decided. "I don't really care, and if I had to think of one person I might walk in on doing something mind-scarringly horrible as this, it would be you. So what we're going to do is, I'm going to go walk to the end of the street, count to ten, walk back, and when I get here the Hollow will be dead, there won't be blood caked around your mouth, you're going to buy me an extra large, expensive chocolate sundae to help me repress the memory of..... this, and I can only hope that I only see this image again in my nightmares, alright?"

Ranma nodded rapidly and wordlessly.

xxx

She'd still kept eating Hollows, of course, but she'd been much more wary about the wheres and whens of it after that unexpected interruption. Any power increase was minimal, and they weren't filling at all, but... there was just something about it that left her literally salivating for more every time one of the monsters crossed her path. Of course, it hadn't taken the things long to get the hint, and the population running around Karakura had thinned out really fast, apparently ceding ground to a larger predator.

Kagami had found it hilarious.

In any case, with little or no progress in the realm of spiritual energy, she had spent the days working on other pursuits. At long last, she had cast off her father's decision regarding the forbidden schools, at least in part, and dissected the Yama techniques to rework them, creating entirely new techniques with the idea behind the vacuum blades as a model.

She would keep the Yama itself sealed, and likely never actually use the techniques as Genma had created them again. Her own, marginally less flashy but arguably far more deadly techniques could fill the void.

If she used them almost solely with her left, most especially the poison claw technique which relied upon the unnaturally created poison to be expelled from her claw tips at exactly the right time, carrying it to be delivered from a distance into newly created wounds, then it would leave the understandable impression that the use of those invisible blades was a function of the arm itself as well. A nasty surprise to keep in store for someone particularly deserving, she supposed.

The Umi, the much lesser used twin school, was trickier. In the end, she'd been forced to admit that the vast majority of that school was particularly useless, simply being the perfect counters for the techniques of the Yama. Against a practitioner who used those techniques to the exclusion of all others, it was ideal! However, with them both being sealed, the likelyhood of such a person existing was all but impossible. The only interesting part of it, in the end, was the technique used as a part of its 'ghost' stance, which drew in and concealed the user's ki from others. It could be reworked to create a very similar, even near-identical technique for spirit energy.

Unfortunately, such a technique could well be counterintuitive. As her own reserves increased slowly to the point that she could actually sense those of others, she had realized that the Ichigo boy was quite simply a ridiculously enormous wellspring of spirit energy. In comparison to just about any of his contemporaries, it was like measuring sling bullets to cannon balls, and it continued to swell as days passed. With all that spirit energy floating about wherever he went, it would actually be easier to pick hers out if she tried to conceal it in his presence, only requiring that someone pick out the empty spot in the maelstrom. Any Shinigami, Hollow, or anything else with large enough levels of spiritual energy would face her with similar problems, and she suspected the same held true of people with inordinate levels of ki.

So, sadly, there would be no ninja business in her near future, she supposed.

As a bonus, though, she had figured out how to deal with the problem with the energy bleedoff of the ki beam. The problem had actually been quite tricky to work out, but then she had noticed something odd, and with a little more pushing had worked out that ki was 'sort-of magnetic', for lack of a proper term. If it was just one simple beam, then a lot of it would be drawn away by other nearby sources of life, sucking some of the power from it. If there were two beams, side by side... the side facing opposite of the other beam would still bleed off a little power to the surroundings, but the sides near each other...

Well, they would still have bleedoff, which seemed inevitable at this point without a great deal of further study. It was irrelevant, however, because the bled off energy was attracted to the nearest other source of ki and became a part of it, that source being the other beam. So while the beams were individually still bleeding off a lot of energy, much of that energy was actually reinforcing the opposing beam, an the end result was much more powerful. It worked best when the beams either twirled around each other like a helix, or one beam spiraled around the other, straight beam, keeping it in near perfect condition while bleeding off much of its own energy. She tended towards using the second, in spite of a marginal loss of power, because a pink spiral beam just looked like an oddly colored drill bit whirling, while the helix looked unfortunately like she was shooting pink ribbons out of her palm, which just couldn't be tolerated.

All in all, she'd been progressing nicely, and was considering a rather more esoteric technique she'd read about once.

Kanka.

It had been impressive to read about, but she'd never made any sort of attempt to learn it, because it had required that the user draw upon to seperate sources of power and blend them to fuel it. Ki... and magic.

She'd immediately put the tome away upon reading that, and hadn't thought of it since. Now.... now, however, she was wondering if the technique mightn't be remodeled somewat. The energies powering the technique had been described as being in opposition to the blending, which was why it had worked. Euphemistically, Magic was the World, placed in one hand, and Ki was ones Self, placed in the other, and the forced mingling of the two was how Kanka worked...

There were other oppositions to consider however, and Ki could just as easily be considered a power of Life as well as Self. And spirit energy... it was undeniably a power linked deeply to and with Death.

A question to be looked into in more depth at a later date, once she had returned to Mahora and could find that tome once more.

That return, however, would be put off a little longer.

xxx

"Tell me, Tatsuki. Why is it, that you all will follow Ichigo into the soul society tonight?"

"I wouldn't expect you to understand." Tatsuki shot back, having been thoroughly pressed by the training she was going through. Her body flickered, and Ranma whipped out a water balloon, pelting her with it.

"Control! Your form is currently linked to your mental state when you activate those powers. Allow your emotion to shift and your form will change in response, and with rage you become the Fire. Powerful, yes, but indiscriminate and difficult to control. Focus!"

"I am focused! I'm calm!" Tatsuki said, the edges of her stony form going flinty at the declaration.

"You are not." Ranma rebuffed firmly. "Were you calm you would currently be a placid, still form of Water. You are determined, and so stony Earth is what shapes your form. Why is it, Tatsuki, that I can determine the nature and predilections of your power so easily, and even spell it out to you in excruciating detail, but it is so difficult for you to grasp the same even with my aid?"

"I dunno. You're the crazy genius, you tell me." Tatsuki snarked, form flickering again. A water balloon dutifully smacked between her eyes as Ranma took note of it.

"In any case, I was simply wondering aloud. Kuchiki Rukia was a part of your lives for only a short time, most of which was spent lying to you, pretending to be a simple schoolgirl and modifying memories when anything otherwise was discovered. You owe her nothing. And yet, you still plan to rush headlong to her rescue and recovery?"

"It's what Ichigo wants to do." Tatsuki growled. "As Nakama, I can't just-"

"Ah. Of course. Nakama. How silly of me. It's not about Kuchiki at all, simply that Kurosaki wishes to go, and so you will follow, like a pack of hounds dogging the Alpha's every move. Or not quite even that? I think it's more. It's not Kurosaki at all, or not quite. It's that once Ichigo had decided to go, the besotted princess, your Orihime, was sure to follow, and the knight cannot stand to be left behind."

"SHUT UP!" Tatsuki yelled, surging to her feet and into flame in the same motion. The automatic water balloon evaporated before it reached her.

"FOCUS! If a little needling from me can agitate you so, and you cannot control your emotions, then you're trusting to mere fortune to be what you need to be at the right time. You're nowhere near ready to put this to the test in a combat situation, and the element of surprise over the nature of your powers will only take you so far!"

Tatsuki seethed, but forcibly settled down, the flames going out and stone beneath taking their place... no, not quite. Some of the anger hadn't been banished, revealing itself in the fact that the stone was the thick black crust of magma, clinking as it slowly cooled. How fascinating! Every time Ranma thought she'd seen everything the girl's powers had to offer, something new cropped up.

"Despite not being ready... you're leaving tonight, aren't you." Ranma stated, and was answered with a curt nod.

".... Tch. Take the rest of the day off and take a nap or something. You'll need your energy if you intend to survive this foolhardy venture, and what I've been able to pound into your head about ki isn't enough to fill in for your gaps yet. Hmph. The program ends today, as well."

"You aren't coming with us?" Tatsuki asked, apparently having only just realized this possibility, the anger winking out and leaving her starting to flicker into another form before she siezed control once more.

"Oho? Did you think I would be here to hold your hand forever, Arisawa Tatsuki? The program lasts two weeks only, if you recall. I'm expected on a train in the morning."

Tatsuki nodded somberly.

xxx

She was still a little depressed about that even when the summons to Urahara's came, but not enough to cloud the indignation at the bloody writing. She just hoped that it wasn't visible to normal people, or her mother was going to absolutely flip when she saw...

She paused for a moment, considering letting Ranma know that she was off, but when she opened the door the younger girl was sleeping so peacefully that... in the end, she had simply left, silently.

She had been in for a surprise when she'd finally made it, to see Ranma waiting there, smirking at her.

"You! But you said you weren't-?"

"Is that what you heard?" Ranma wondered. "If I recall, what I said was 'the program only lasts two weeks', and 'I'm expected on a train in the morning'. I never said that I wasn't going with you. At the same time, of course, I never claimed I would, and I will indeed be on that morning train. Or rather, Sayo-chan has generously agreed to take care of my body for my while I'm not using it. I can only expect that my muscles and reputation will be horribly atrophied by the time I return, and nobody of any importance will be fooled by the body double, but they can't prove anything so I really don't care."

"Then you'll help us after all?"

"When did I ever agree to that?" Ranma wondered again. "I'm infiltrating the soul society for my own private purposes, and simply happen to be travelling alongside you to get there. If our paths cross again while within the afterlife, and I end up assisting in your own goals, then it's mere coincidence at best."

"I see.... thank you." Tatsuki said, honestly grateful, having automatically filtered and decoded the speech out of experience.

"Tch."

"I don't think she should go!" Ichigo interrupted. "She's... look at her! And she has the lowest spirit energy of us to boot!"

"Oh? I'm insulted that you think a great lummox like yourself could prevent me from doing anything I feel particularly inclined towards doing." Ranma shot back. "But then, I tend not to pay much attention to the opinions of men in dresses."

"It's not a dress!" Ichigo automatically insisted. "It's a... a uniform, thing. It seperates into pants, and it doesn't even look like a dress! Does it...?" He finished hesitantly, turning towards the nearest male for backup. Uryuu refused to say anything, which was in itself far more damning evidence than anything he could have said.

"Dress sense aside..." Urahara interjected. "Ichigo has a point. You have a zanpakuto, yes, from that ill-fated-yet-incredibly-fortunate training exercise I heard about, but I've not seen anything else special about you of yet. Odds are, you'll die. Still want to go?"

"I can take care of myself, Shopkeeper-san."

"Oh? Well, I suppose I'll just have to take your word for- think fast!"

He'd finished the sentence in a rush, launching a demon-art fireball at almost the same breath. Reacting instantly to the assault, Ranma automatically created an orb of ki and launched it, impacting with the fireball and detonating them both before it crossed even half the distance to her. Urahara smiled and shrugged.

"See, at the same time that answers a lot of my questions, and proves your own point. Try not to die while invading the afterlife, 'kay?"

Ranma didn't bother to dignify the statement with a response, instead adgusting the position of her zanpakuto and the wrapped Muramasa, and setting Zero to perch on her shoulder and leer at people. She'd considered leaving one or both of the latter with Sayo, for her protection, but wasn't sure the demon-blade wouldn't just devour the ghost out of spite once she touched it, and all things considered Zero wasn't that much of a better prospect, despite that she might be able to keep the ghost 'in-character' for a while, an endeavor that was probably doomed from the very beginning.

As long as she stayed on-campus, she would be fine, Ranma had explained to her, and it wasn't like she was likely to be assaulted by Hollows on the trip back either. The ones in Karakura had learned to beware redheads, and the train would drop her off close enough to Mahora for it to not really be an issue.

She'd zoned out at some point, but the gate had been set up and the group was starting through. She quickly followed, sparing not a glance behind for the shopkeeper and only dimly acknowledging his advice of 'don't stop running, or you'll probably die!'

She hit the ground moving, and quickly took towards the head of the pack, pulling into the lead after something behind caught their momentary attention. Probably Ishida's cape getting caught on a wall or something equally pointless.

As she reached the end of the tunnel, she turned back for a moment to guage the rest, and blinked at the huge, horrible sort-of-worm thing chasing them.

"Run faster!" She advised seriously, then stepped through the other end of the gate, no intention of getting caught up in that.

As she was ejected well above ground level, she took a moment to review her goals.

She had, at first, thought of hunting down some famous persons, legendary swordsmiths and warriors and the like, and grilling them for information. That idea had lasted her about long enough to come across the information that apparently people also died in Soul Society and were reborn on earth or something to that effect, and that a significant majority of those people couldn't remember anything about their previous lives anyway, making the whole thing moot. The odds of hunting down lost secrets of battle having reached a point that finding anything in the limited timeframe of 'however long it takes Kurosaki to rescue that girl' was going to be damn near impossible, she'd gone right to plan B.

Infiltrate the Shinigami in order to steal whatever juicy scraps of knowledge she might happen across. Somehow. She'd work out the details as she happened across them, making this plan a little more flexible.

About the time she touched down on the ground, the more numerous portion of the raiding party was ejected rather more violently, shooting down to impact with the ground in far, far less than half the time it had taken her to reach it. Having glanced up to see them coming, Ranma also noticed something else, thick slabs of stone and wood, which had begun to drop... by the time she realized that they would fall into a wall surrounding the bit over there with the best roads, which she belatedly realized was probably where the shinigami lived, it was too late.

A very large man with a very large axe was now standing in front of the gate. Ranma considered that, taking only a moment to dismiss all the logical impossibilities of this situation, and decided on a course of action.

"Have fun playing with your new friend, Kurosaki." She said, casually booting him from his prone position to land awkwardly in front of the giant.

The rest of the group had something to say about that, but Ranma really didn't feel like listening, so she just grunted a little and nodded every so often to give the illusion that she was paying attention to anything but the fight. As expected, Ichigo had little trouble dealing with the gatekeeper, and Ranma blurred into the motion of shundo the second he started to lift the gate upwards.

She sensed a much higher source of spirit energy on the other side the second there was so much as a crack of space between the bottom of the gate and the ground, but was too late to stop moving. Instead, she sped herself up, and dropped into a roll as the world seemed to slow down around her, the technique greedily devouring her ki reserves. She passed beneath the gate with barely enough room to spare and hurled herself into a leap, landing on her feet and rebounding to the inside of the wall and running as fast as she could, to put as much distance as possible between herself and the person with enough power behind them to dwarf Kurosaki.

In real-time, Ichimaru Gin frowned at an unexpected rush of wind and started to turn before catching himself and remaining face forward, grinning at Jidanbou, who was very surprised to see him. By the time the next thirty seconds had passed, leaving the gatekeeper less an arm, the gate firmly down, and all of the ryoka safely outside, he'd completely forgotten about the weird breeze.

For their part, it wasn't until nearly an hour later that the rest of the humbled invaders realized that one of their number had gone entirely missing. One and a half, if they included the animate toy.

xxx

"So, which way should we go from here?"

'Left.' Kagami decided.

"Right." Zero offered.

"Straight ahead it is!" Ranma confirmed, still running, but at a much slower rate without the amplification of Shundo. Now that stage one 'Get into the place' had been completed, she should probably get to work on figuring out just what stage two should be. Winging it didn't seem to be working.

It was about then that she bumped into a very large man wearing a bucket with eyeslits over his head and tumbled inelegantly right onto her ass.

"... Ow."

The large man somberly reached down and assisted her in rising, in so much as 'carefully lifting her with two fingers, brushing the dust off her, and setting her on her feet' could be considered assistance. Actually, it was kind of humiliating, and she was pretty sure she could see the shades and 'stach guy two steps behind bucket-head smirking at her.

"Are you well, child?" The man? beneath the bucket wondered aloud.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Take worse tumbles all the time, big guy, this is no sweat."

"You will adress Captain Komamura with the appropriate respect." Shades said reprovingly, light glinting dramatically off his shades.

'I don't like the one with shades. We should totally kill these guys. Like, right now. They wouldn't expect it at all, and it'd be fun.' Kagami decided. Ranma ignored her, noting that her reflection seemed to have inherited not the slightest bit of her self-preservation skills.

"Yeah, sure. Sorry about that, Captain big guy, sir. You too, Shades." She said instead, quickly concealing the fact that she had no idea who these people were with a flippant exterior and the preference to use nicknames thought up on the spot over a person's actual name.

Fortunately enough, both of them were more than familiar with someone with much the same actual personality, and so she was mildly surprised when the bucket Captain simply chuckled.

For his part, Komamura had taken in the details of the girl, young, friendly but snappish, funny clothes and decorations, and the zanpakuto and wrapped something that he presumed was another weapon of some kind, carrying a dolly in one arm, and drew the only obvious conclusion. She was an academy student, probably one of the ones that hadn't been selected as astounding during training and pre-selected for a specific division, and was about to be assigned about to be assigned one, but was in a hurry and rushing around because she thought she was going to be late. He stated this conclusion aloud.

"Yes!" Ranma immediately agreed, siezing greedily upon the unknowingly proferred cover story. "You gotta be a mind reader, Captain Big Guy, Sir, because that's exactly the situation. See, I might have gone out walking and taken a couple wrong turns, and I hate to admit it but it's entirely possible that I'm completely and totally lost and frantic right now, and would you please set me back on track because I'd be ever so grateful?"

Komamura chuckled again, once more drawing a parallel with a certain officer, and happily pointed the way for the lost little shinigami-to-be.

"Such a nice young lady." He said after she gratefully thanked him and left. "I wonder what division she'll end up in."

"C'mon, captain. You know they pretty much draw numbers out of a hat for anyone who's not particularly given towards any specific field."

"True, true." Komamura frowned behind his steel mask. "Oh. I do hope the poor girl doesn't end up in eleventh or twelfth. Those divisions are so... violent, and unethical, respectively. It would be a terrible shame to see such innocence blighted."

There was a moment of strange awkwardness between the two, as though the Captain had said something terribly strange, and neither of them could work out why.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Captain. It's two out of thirteen, the odds aren't that great. And besides, Kusajishi does well enough in eleventh, I'm sure the vice-captain would welcome another girl, even look out for her a little."

"..... I note you have no similar reassurances regarding Kurotsuchi's division." Komamura stated gravely.

"............. No. No, I'm afraid I don't."

xxx

'You change your personality as easily as your clothes, looks like.' Kagami grunted in mild disgust.

"It's called acting. Frankly, a better option than picking a fight with someone who's levels of spirit energy are, in a word, ridiculous and getting everyone's attention even if I pull out a win. That's not the point of this little venture, if you recall."

'Feh. You and your stupid reasonable, rational arguments and completely valid points are always keeping us from having any fun.'

"I'll kick a puppy later, or something. For now, shut up, I'm trying to look like I actually belong here."

She was actually doing pretty well at that. In a large room full of people who ranged from obscenely hideous to unnaturally beautiful, with all variety of interesting clothes, as apparently this was the last time they would be wearing anything but a standart uniform and maybe in the future, if they were lucky, an arm badge or even captain's jacket, as well as a bunch of interesting tattoos and/or body modifications, extending to people with horns or extra eyes, the only reason she'd possibly stand out was that she might actually look too normal, compared to the rest.

"Hey, hey!" A particularly loathsome specimen grumbled, either in twisted mockery or in an honest attempt at friendliness, either way unappreciated. "Never seen you 'fore. You musta been in a different class. Gotta name, cutie?"

'Can we kill this one?' Kagami requested politely.

In the span of time it took her to mentally deny the request, the person's eyes were caught by Zero.

"Dolly? What's this?" He grumbled, reaching down.

"I wouldn't." Ranma warned.

"Wassit gonna do? Bite me?" He guffawed, holding Zero by the head and lifting.

"Well... probably not. She might stab you though."

"I totally will!" Zero declared, pulling a pair of knives from somewhere. Startled, the goonish person immediately dropped her back down to the table and stumbled a half-step back.

"Alright everyone, settle down into a seat, and a uniform will be passed out to you. In the inside hem is a number corresponding to your new division, and in the left pocket is a handy map, just in case any of you morons have an unnaturally horrible sense of direction, or have a bad enough memory that you can't recall any of Sereitei's landmarks or how to get from point A to B. Apparently its happened with distressing regularity."

'That's almost ridiculously convenient.' Kagami noted. 'And that means that nobody's likely to die soon. Shame.'

Ranma casually stepped into the black uniform, securing it properly as she considered the number she had seen inside. It had been a Four.

She could only wonder what that might mean.

xxx

A.N.

Infiltration complete. And now, show of hands, who saw this coming, and how much of it? I wanna know. Pretty sure the Elementalism thingy came out of left field, and I'd like to think that the espionage thing over simply going with the flow of the main attack is a neat twist... though I may have pushed it a little hard, I dunno. I'm going to assume that Gin was under strict orders from Aizen and really focused on following a script exactly, though it doesn't account for him forgetting 'funny breezes', and maybe because he's squinting all the time he didn't make out the blur that was Ranma?

Okay, yeah, I'm pushing the logic a bit a bit. Oh well. The plot will stretch to cover my whims. She was just really, really lucky, I guess.

And speaking of whims, Fourth Division. This, I know nobody saw coming. Honestly, at first I was going to go with the more logical decison of eleventh or twelfth, to fit her character kinda, sorta, but then I recalled the previous nursing scene with Eva, this idea hit me, and I giggled like a moron for about fifteen minutes.

So, um, no promises about how the next chapter will go. It might be Waff-y. Actually, probably not, it'll most likely be horrible and/or hilarious, but Waff is a vague possibility at this point, maybe. Not a really big one, but fair warning, you know?

Why, I'm going giddy at the thought of writing the next chapter. Or maybe I'm just tired. Update in the morning.